So did anyone figure out what Malachi 4.1-6 truly means? I received no email responses and I have until 5:00 PDT Sunday to have an answer.
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I felt a twinge of jealousy last evening when I received an email from Deloris Gilbert. She told me how she and Ken had taken part in what has become a Village church tradition of tailgating as a church family before Jessieville football games.
Man, do I miss those! Those are some great memories in my life. Our tailgate parties drew such acclaim from the community that during our last fall in Arkansas, the booster club of the school actually asked our church to lead the playoff tailgate parties.
In my life, those tailgate parties have been replaced by the Downtown Outreach in Fresno. The first Saturday of every month, our group heads down to the corner of G and Ventura Streets in Fresno to feed the homeless.
Tomorrow is the first Saturday of the month so all you Woodward Park'ers are invited downtown to help out. It is a powerful method of living out the way of Jesus modeled for us in his service to the lost and the least.
Hope to see you downtown tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m.
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When it comes to old sermon outlines, preachers generally abide by one of two approaches. Some of my colleagues never save a single sermon outline under the belief that there former thoughts will overly influence their new studies. Others have filing cabinets lining every inch of their office because they save every outline they've ever created.
My approach lies somewhere in between. I like to save my oldest outlines for the giggles they provide in how immature my early understanding really was. But I like to save many of my outlines as a resource when I rework a series. For example, I am preaching through Philippians on Sunday mornings -- something I have done in the past. This week, we are at that most familiar passage in 2.5-11 that many scholars believe is an early Christian hymn Paul included in the text of his letter.
In looking over an older outline of Philippians, I came across a poem from Ruth Harms Calkin that had escaped my current study that asks a most penetrating question:
"You know, Lord, how I serve you
with great emotional fervor in the limelight.
You know how eagerly I speak for you at a Women's Club.
You know my genuine enthusiasm at a Bible study.
But how would I react, I wonder,
if you pointed to a basin of water
and asked me to wash the calloused feet
of a bent and wrinkled old woman
day after day, month after month,
in a room where nobody saw and nobody knew?
